Your Average Teenage Ant Misfit
by Florida's Firefly
Summary: A one-shot story I wrote a couple of years ago that I found on one of my floppy disks. Basically a day in the life for young and just-turned-teen Flik. I found my developing writer skills quite.........uh, humorous.


Found this one day on an old floppy of mine. I read it again and I found my developing writing skills humorous. I think I was watching Hercules too much when I wrote this.  
  
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Little Flik sat on his bed. He sighed and reviewed his day. It hadn't been the greatest day in his thirteen year old young life. Another one of his inventions flipped, getting him in trouble once again. He had meant to put a machine together to make the harvest go faster, but the machine had gone out of control. And as always, he was teased by all of the other kids. But the worst of it was he made Princess Atta mad, which always made Flik's heart sink. He wanted to please her in the best way he could. She was a princess, which made Flik a little nervous. One wrong step and who knows what would happen the next time. But it wasn't because he wanted to be a favorite of the queen; he just wanted to be accepted. When he was little, he was always seemed to be a misfit in all the games. A few would reluctantly put him in, some would find an excuse and run off, but most just told him the truth right off, and Flik was left alone. Nowadays, Flik didn't want to take any chances of getting his feelings hurt again, so he'd just stay indoors most of the time, fiddling with inventions.

The grasshoppers had been invading the colony for six years now. In that time, Flik had experienced the tragic murder of his father, Alder. Alder had tried to stand up to Hopper, the gang's leader. He was 7 then, and it had been that death that proved the grasshoppers' power to the colony. Now it was just Flik and his mother, Maize.

As if on cue, Maize entered Flik's chamber. She was light purple with green eyes. "Flik? What are you doing still up?"

Flik frowned. "Mom? Am I a freak?"

Maize sat down next to him. "What? Where would you get an idea like that?"

Flik shrugged. "I dunno. That's what Dart called me today when I saw him in the tunnel."

"Really?"

"And he said that I was a geek."

Maize put her hand on her son's shoulder. "And is that true?"

"…Well …I guess not. His head is the one that comes to a point."

Maize laughed. "You sound just like your father when you say that."

Flik smiled a little, but Maize could tell he was troubled to hear that subject brought up.

"He's still here, Flik. He hasn't left you."

"I know… It's just so hard to tell myself that he's… _gone_."

Maize touched the bed space next to Flik. "He can be anywhere, anytime, Flik, as long as you imagine it. He can be sitting right here next to you, where you can talk to him whenever you want."

Flik touched the same place and looked at it. "I still miss him, Mom."

"I know." she said. They hugged each other. "I know how hard it is for you. But you really need to get out."

Flik sighed. "I can't. Everyone will just make fun of me. It always happens."

Maize brought him so they were eye-to-eye. "That may be true, but how are you supposed to know if you don't give it a second try?"

Flik didn't answer at first. He sighed. "I don't wanna get my feelings hurt again. I-I try hard to make a difference. I really do! I just… can't. I'm never gonna make a difference."

Maize thought for a moment. Then, she stood and picked up a seed that was sitting on the desk in the room. She sat down again and gave the seed to Flik. "What is that?"

Flik seemed confused. "It's a seed."

"Right. Now picture our tree. How big is it?"

Flik chuckled weakly and looked at the seed. "A lot bigger than this thing."

"Yes, Flik, but as you know, everything that made our tree is all packed together inside that little seed. All it needs is time, rain, sunshine, and caring. And then, poof; a tree."

Flik kept on exchanging glances between the seed and his mother, confused. "And that has to do with my crisis in _what_ way?"

Maize smiled and rolled her eyes. "O.K. Flik, let me put it this way. The only reason you feel like you can't do anything is because you're still a seed. You're not a tree yet. Right now, you've got everything you need to grow except one thing."

Flik began to catch on slowly. "Sunlight?"

"Exactly." smiled Maize.

Flik smiled as he understood slowly. They put their arms around each other. "Thanks, Mom." said Flik.

Maize laughed a little. "Good night, Flik." she said.

"'Night, Mom." Flik replied.

Flik watched as she stood and walked out of his chamber. He breathed a sigh of relief and flopped back on his bed. He was ready to start another day with a new confidence. He finally fell asleep, his mind filled with thoughts of what he would do the next day.

The little blue ant woke up feeling chipper. He ran outside to the bustling life of the colony. His little aphid, Jet, barked excitedly and ran a couple of circles around his young master. Flik motioned his arm to the left. "C'mon, Jet!!" he shouted excitedly. They began searching around for something fun. First, he saw two ants trying to build what seemed like a column of stones for the new Offering Stone. They searched and searched. Flik suddenly spotted a group of kids Flik's age playing with an baby acorn top. They were using it as a Frisbee. The disk accidentally flung toward them. Jet barked and leaped up into the air, catching it square in his tiny mouth.

"Hey!" shouted a freckled boy from the group. "Over here, boy!" They all suddenly gasped when they saw Flik standing beside the little aphid.

"It's Flik!" one of them whispered.

Flik smiled. Now was his chance. He took the Frisbee from Jet. "Hey," he said. "Mind if we join?"

The group was quiet. The freckled boy finally spoke up. "…Uhmm… sorry, Flik; but we… I mean, I think… we're divided into teams of two, and, um, we already have 7."

"…But-" The boy snatched the Frisbee out of Flik's hands and ran off with the group. "Later, Satyr!"

The boys laughed as they ran off. "What a loser!" one said.

"Hey," said another. "One of these days, maybe he can actually find a real name."

All of the boys laughed together.

Flik felt his shoulders sag. He frowned and sighed as he looked down at Jet. The little green aphid whimpered.

"Yeah," muttered Flik. "Me too."

Jet turned his head. His whole body perked up and he suddenly started barking. He ran around Flik's legs, pointing his nose towards that direction.

"Jet, what's gotten into you?"

Jet barked and led his master's attention to a figure down the way. A figure with delicate posture, glinting wings, curly antennae, and flowered crown. Flik froze and felt his stomach flip inside-out. It didn't take him long to recognize the princess, Atta.

He gulped, a little too hard in fact. The princess recognized the lone blue form from the corner of her eye. She turned to look at him. "…Uhm… Hi, Flik."

Flik, frozen and in a loss of words slowly moved his antenna up and down, returning a shy "hello". He didn't know exactly how to act toward a princess. He was afraid to speak. He didn't want to say something stupid in front of her.

Needless to say, Atta wasn't precisely ready for words either. Her eyes switched left and right. She slowly ascended towards him. She stood there for a second. "So… um… how've you been?"

Even though now he could speak, Flik couldn't speak English. His eyes widened. "Uhh… di, di…daa…"

Atta raised an eyeridge. "Really?" she asked, sounding more like a statement then a question. "Gee… talk about a tough day."

Flik only gulped. He liked Atta, to the point that he kinda...had a crush on her.

But that was stupid to even think about. Even if he was royalty himself, there was no way that he could ever hit it off with the princess... 

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Am I stupid?? An ACORN TOP?!?! Those kids would be squished!!! -o-;;


End file.
